Davey the Fat Boy wrote:Nice to see all of your full lists. In a lot of cases, the most interesting choices are the ones that didn’t make the cull.

Mine is a bit “safer” and “USA-centric” than I intended. Hard to fit in too many personal choices when squeezing the whole history of film into 50 slots. Especially given the fact that I went with the “top of the head” method and comes lies the list in 5 minutes...The Tree of Life ..The Thin Red Line

..Heaven's Gate

Great to see these three films chosen in your 50, they leave me rapt.

bobzilla77 wrote:Those people who say the guitars sound like bagpipes have never really listened to bagpipes.

The Modernist wrote:That's a really good list. I wish more people knew about "Seconds".

I wish I included it in my list. It's one of those films that absolutely goes for broke in its concept and leaves the viewer utterly exhausted. I saw it three or four years ago and I still can't get it out of my mind.

Anyway, cheers al for putting this list together: that's a quixotic number one (and again I'm assuming that most people are preferring the directors' cut), and it's fun to see how the whole thing turned out. I think there's a good mix between the populist and the classic over all.

It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

Davey the Fat Boy wrote:Nice to see all of your full lists. In a lot of cases, the most interesting choices are the ones that didn’t make the cull.

Mine is a bit “safer” and “USA-centric” than I intended. Hard to fit in too many personal choices when squeezing the whole history of film into 50 slots. Especially given the fact that I went with the “top of the head” method and comes lies the list in 5 minutes...The Tree of Life ..The Thin Red Line

..Heaven's Gate

Great to see these three films chosen in your 50, they leave me rapt.

He also chose Badlands, you know!

Jimbo wrote:Look, all I know is pretty much what I get from Robert Parry over at Consortium News.

Davey the Fat Boy wrote:Nice to see all of your full lists. In a lot of cases, the most interesting choices are the ones that didn’t make the cull.

Mine is a bit “safer” and “USA-centric” than I intended. Hard to fit in too many personal choices when squeezing the whole history of film into 50 slots. Especially given the fact that I went with the “top of the head” method and comes lies the list in 5 minutes...The Tree of Life ..The Thin Red Line

..Heaven's Gate

Great to see these three films chosen in your 50, they leave me rapt.

He also chose Badlands, you know!

Why yes, he did, and Days of Heaven both of which successfully made the rankings.

bobzilla77 wrote:Those people who say the guitars sound like bagpipes have never really listened to bagpipes.

I did choose 'Seconds' and 'Days of Heaven' in previous lists, but this time I went for a more quixotic selection, even though I knew a lot of my picks would only be picked by me.Sad to see 'Don't Look Now' fall as heavily as it did. It should be a lot higher

My list, largely from the 80s/90s when I watched far more films, and well skewed towards comedy

Top 10 - 8 pointsMonty Python and the Holy GrailMonty Python's Life of BrianMonsieur Hulot's HolidayThis is Spinal tapLord of the Rings Trilogy, or if one The Return of the KingApocalypse NowParis TexasBlue VelvetWithnail and IThe Return of the Pink Panther

It was the first X film I ever watched as a teenager. It is the sort of film that teenage boys love; it is violent, fun, funny and endlessly quotable. It is in for the same reasons that Kelly's Heroes is in, it gives me a proustian rush.

It is also a fantastic period piece, yes it is a fascistic Judge Dread precursor but you don't tend to put too much thought into those sorts of things when you are 16 and male and when you get older you tend to give the film a bit of a free pass on some of its more questionable ethics.

It is a fine performance by Clint as well and a better one by his .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world.

It was the first X film I ever watched as a teenager. It is the sort of film that teenage boys love; it is violent, fun, funny and endlessly quotable. It is in for the same reasons that Kelly's Heroes is in, it gives me a proustian rush.

It is also a fantastic period piece, yes it is a fascistic Judge Dread precursor but you don't tend to put too much thought into those sorts of things when you are 16 and male and when you get older you tend to give the film a bit of a free pass on some of its more questionable ethics.

It is a fine performance by Clint as well and a better one by his .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world.

Do you feel lucky punk; well do yah!?

I agree with all that. The rest of the series is crap though. I think Andrew Robinson's performance as the killer is superb, too. I mean, it occasionally veers into the hammy, but he's very believably unhinged throughout.

Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

At a basic level it’s a superbly made thriller with a cracking soundtrack, a fantastic villain a wonderful period feel.

On a deeper level the movies power lies in its combination of two points of view and how it plays (and satirises) with the audiences desire for revenge and violence. Some people naturally see it as some reactionary right wing fantasy. The lone American bypassing the ineffective judiciary dishing out retribution with a 44 Magnum like bad ass from a Western. Of course this appeals to some people and it also appeals to us, the audience, who naturally like seeing low lifes and punks getting their arses kicked. It feels good when Harry scares the guy in the street with his speech, doesn’t it? Of course it does.

But there’s something else going on and despite the movies ambiguity I think it ultimately comes down on this side, rather than the one I’ve described above. Harry is a man out of time, an anachronism. His methods are showed to often be faulty and an actual hindrance to capturing the killer (the little girl dies for example); when Harry breaks into the stadium the evidence he captures cannot be used and the killer goes free. The underlying message is that the law and due process needs to be followed (remember the lawyers speech?) even if we, the audience, desire something else.

And yet.....Harry goes rogue at the end and kills the bad guy buy at what cost to himself? Harry throws his badge away like a broken man. Was the burden too great? Has he shamed the badge? Does he realise he is a man out of time and it’s necessary to move aside and let cops like his partner take over? There is ambiguity here, there is throughout the movie of course. Is Siegel saying sometimes it is necessary to do what Harry does to get the bad guy? Possibly but is it worth it?

I think it’s a misunderstood movie in many ways but also a great one.

Last edited by Goat Boy on 22 Nov 2017, 11:08, edited 1 time in total.

Copehead wrote:I have never seen anything that doesn't convince me that Joe Average people who vote Conservative are fundamentally too thick to understand the world

I don’t even think Dirty Harry was the best Collaboration between Eastwood and Don Siegel released in 1971. That would be The Beguiled, which made my list (I was strangely unaware that a remake was just due to be released when I listed it).

Talk about your Proustian rushes. The Beguiled is such a weird mix of horror, period piece and exploitation film. It’s really a singular piece of cinema - and along with the Homeric odyssey that is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, it’s easily one of the two most interesting films Eastwood ever leant his efforts to.

Dirty Harry is what it is. Personally I think Goat Boy dismissed the dismissals too easily. It IS a reactionary right-wing fantasy and it doesn’t come down on the side of due process. It comes down on the side of a man “dirty” enough to sacrifice himself for justice to occur. Ultimately it’s a pretty repellent film politically, made watchable by strong direction and a strong leading actor.

I’m also amazed at the praise given to the performance of Robinson as the villain. He’s over the top to the point of distraction, almost single-handedly sinking the film.

P.S. Other’s have mentioned Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (a much better film than Harry...and probably better even than the Beguiled) - not sure how it failed to make my list. An absolute masterpiece.

The Modernist wrote:That's a really good list. I wish more people knew about "Seconds".

I've been wanting to watch that for some time now. It comes on TCM maybe twice a year tops, but it's always on really fucking late and I don't have a DVR.

It was good to see Five Easy Pieces on Dave's list. Probably my favorite Jack Nicholson film.

It’s like the greatest episode of The TwilightZone ever...fleshed out to be more paranoid and more psychedelic. It’s impossible to to look away from.

Five Easy Pieces is such an enigma of a film. It gets at the essential unknowability of human beings better than any film I can think of. Especially how mysterious we are to ourselves.

I was heartened to see several of your choices. Chief among them, I Never Sang For My Father. What a great (and sadly forgotten) film that is.

Also...I’ve neglected to thank Al for the super job of compiling this list. So lovingly done with the posters and film descriptions. When screenadelica is active it’s my favorite part of BCB, and this has brought some life to it again...so thank you!